By Tiernan Ray

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Well, that was fast: The ink is barely dry on Thursday’s IPO filing by Twitter, and here comes the first coverage note, from Suntrust Robinson Humphrey‘s Rob Peck, who slaps a Buy on the not-yet-trading shares, and a $50 price target, writing that Twitter is “Pioneering the real time interest graph.”

“It is important for investors to look at Twitter beyond just a 140 character text,” he writes, offering thoughts about $2 billion in “incremental revenue.” He’s modeling $606 million in revenue this year and $1.17 billion next year.

Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up $3.21, or 0.7%, at $486.24, in early trading, following a raft of mostly positive thoughts from the Street, most of it about iPhone demand.

Jefferies & Co.’s Peter Misek raised his rating on the shares to Buy from Hold, and raises his price target to $600 from $425, writing that a trip last week through Asia with suppliers “Indicated a substantial shift in attitudes toward Apple” and that “despite still seeing risk to CQ4 and FY13 revs, we now believe better GMs will allow Apple to skate by until iPhone 6 launches with its 4.8″ screen.” The iPhone 6 “will catalyze a large upgrade cycle,” he thinks.

Believe it or note, Evercore Partners‘s Patrick Wang was also out East (not clear if these fellows coordinated their travel plans). He writes that Apple’s demand picture was the strongest among the electronics trends he snooped on. DRAM production was second, cloud computing, third, programmable chips, fourth, handset production overall was fifth, and way down the list at 8th position were PC and notebook production. Of Apple, he writes, “Robust iPhone builds could drive 4Q upside,” and that “We believe that [sensor maker] InvenSense (INVN) is now ramping at Apple.”

On CNBC this morning, reflecting on Apple, Jim Cramer was heard to remark, “These are significant calls,” referring to the Jefferies and other notes.

“The thought is, we misjudged that Apple could come back. Now, the question is, why isn’t Apple stock through $500? I think there was a big run in Apple because of the tweet heard round the world,” referring to Carl Icahn’s August tweet about buying Apple shares.

“Our meeting with a notebook vendor served up more downbeat data points around second-half demand,” he writes. “The back-to-school season was described by our contact as much worse than expected; therefore, notebook units at this company are expected to fall by approximately 5% sequentially in 3Q:13 and below the low-teens percentage increase for the PC market over the past six years.”

But Wells Fargo‘s David Wong takes a positive view, saying there are “signs of life in notebooks.” Referring to a report by DigiTimes that showed “that computer builds picked up sharply in the month of September,” he adds, “For the September quarter, shipments at Inventec rose 32% sequentially to 5.95 million units. The article mentioned that shipments are expected to drop in October and that the company has a cautious outlook on the overall fourth quarter.”

Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) are up 32 cents, over 4%, at $8.01, after Reuters’s Nadia Damouni, Soyoung Kim, and Nicola Leskelate Friday wrote that the company “is in talks with Cisco Systems (CSCO), Google (GOOG) and SAP (SAP) about selling them all or parts of itself,” citing multiple unnamed sources.

In response, Jefferies’s Misek reiterated a Hold rating, and an $8 price target, writing that the acquirers could unlock value by splitting up the company into three businesses: handsets, the “BBM” messaging service, and secure network services, the third of which could be “attractive to an enterprise IT player (e.g., Cisco, HPQ, IBM, Oracle, etc.).”

“Given the move to the cloud we believe enterprises will want secure network connectivity, data compression, and a global data center network.”

Shares of VMware (VMW) and EMC (EMC) are both soft this morning after Mizuho Securities USA’s Abhey Lamba reiterated Buy ratings on the two, but wrote that “storage remained more challenging relative to other IT areas” in Q3, though he expects VMware will beat estimates. VMware shares are down 32 cents, or 0.4%, at $80.74, while EMC stock is off 33 cents, or 1.3%, at $25.10.

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There are 13 comments

OCTOBER 7, 2013 9:39 A.M.

JC wrote:

Pater Masek, WTF?

OCTOBER 7, 2013 9:39 A.M.

Complete Manipulation wrote:

How can you have a $8 price target for Blackberry.
They have $4 in cash, after all projected restruturing costs
At least $5 in Real estate and other intangibles.
So Misek is saying those 3 businesses: BBM, secured Network and BB10 handset/licensing business is worth negative $1 per share.
Funny times we live in.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 10:03 A.M.

Anonymous wrote:

BBRY if sells now the price target should be $17.50.disregard jaffries's misek comment about $8.00. bbry is the oldest smartphone system runs on either way and apps on high score. csco, goog,sap any one buys bbry pays right price of about $17.50 plus little premimum.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 10:09 A.M.

Anonymous wrote:

Not just Google, Cisco, SAP. Add LG, Intel, Samsung. That's the problem. Besides Fairfax and Cerebus it's just rumor. Plus Fairfax etc have no obligation to buy at $9 pps.

Blackberry is going to be forced to languish unto irrelevancy like how Palm went down the tube. No need to rush in with money if it's not finished plunging. That's the best way to deal with a company and foundry that are the ultimate cargo cult.

Has Misek at Jefferies ever been right about Apple? No! He takes a trip to Asia and all of a sudden he thinks Samsung, Sony, LG, Amazon, Motorola, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, et al have disapperared? Apple's maket share is crashing because people are tired of getting screwed, and nothing is going to change that.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 11:33 A.M.

Anonymous wrote:

the folks at cisco and google aren't stupid enough to be interested in BBRY. Reuters is a NEWS agency --- not an analyst firm. Merely throwing darts looking for a story.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 11:37 A.M.

@ TruthSeeker wrote:

Nice list. Apple has secretly moved onto the next thing... Sorry to break it to you.

Btw. You've listed the catcher uppers.

OCTOBER 7, 2013 12:07 P.M.

freddysrevng wrote:

Misek has been "very wrong" on BlackBerry for a very long time... good to see there is no indication that he is about to deviate from that course...

OCTOBER 7, 2013 12:08 P.M.

freddysrevng wrote:

Question: "Since iTard Media Nation" has begun to unequivocally bash Android's watch as a "Bust".... how will the Apple watch distinguish itself as a "Winner"????

OCTOBER 7, 2013 1:01 P.M.

@ freddysrevng wrote:

Thanks for your Berrytard and Androtard support. In answer to your q: duh?

Get a life!

OCTOBER 7, 2013 3:28 P.M.

TruthSeeker wrote:

To @TruthSeeker: The so called "catcher-uppers" long ago surpassed apple and that's why they're crushing apple all over the world. Apple's next big thing is the 5c?? Apple has moved on to nothing. I've been hearing this for 20 years and their share of computers is 6%. Their share of smartphones is 13% and falling, and their share of tablets is already down to 40% and falling like a stone. Those are the facts. The rest is the same old tired apple hype intelligent people have had to suffer with for decades. It's interesting that no one's talking apple $1000/share anymore like the morons did only 6 months ago. Now it's more like $520. Next year it'll be can apple get back to $400?

Btw. I used the word secretly. And back tracking as an example. Re 20 years. Did you expect the iPhone or tray it'd be successful? No. To answer you. Sane for the 64 but chip. So. STFU. You're a bore. Go look for oil.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.